The Bookshop

By: Penelope Fitzgerald, David Nicholls - introduction

Narrated by: Eve Karpf, Stephanie Racine

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

In a small East Anglian town, Florence Green decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop.

Hardborough becomes a battleground. Florence has tried to change the way things have always been done, and as a result, she has to take on not only the people who have made themselves important, but natural and even supernatural forces too. Her fate will strike a chord with anyone who knows that life has treated them with less than justice.

Critic reviews

‘Reading a Penelope Fitzgerald novel is like being taken for a ride in a peculiar kind of car. Everything is of top quality – the engine, the coachwork and the interior all fill you with confidence. Then, after a mile or so, someone throws the steering-wheel out of the window.’ Sebastian Faulks

‘Wise and ironic, funny and humane, Fitzgerald is a wonderful, wonderful writer.’ David Nicholls

‘Its stylishness, and this low-voiced lack of emphasis are a pleasure throughout, its moral and human positions invariably sympathetic. But it is astringent too: no self-pity in its self-effacing heroine, who in a world of let-downs and put-downs and poltergeists, keeps her spirit bright and her book-stock miraculously dry in the damp, seeping East Anglian landscape.’ Isabel Quigley, Financial Times

‘Penelope Fitzgerald’s resources of odd people are impressively rich. Raven, the marshman, who ropes Florence in to hang on to an old horse’s tongue while he files the teeth; old Brundish, secretive as a badger, slow as a gorse bush. And this is not just a gallery of quirky still lives; these people appear in vignettes, wryly, even comically animated…On any reckoning, a marvellously piercing fiction.’ Valentine Cunningham, TLS

Thoughtful, entertaining and a delightful treat

This short book is a delight of fascinating perception both of realistic characters, as well as the location and life style in a small coastal village where everyone knows everything about everyone else, A place where jealousies easily arise and where real or imagined slights are never forgotten or forgiven..

I chose to read this recently without realising there was a film about to be released. Having listened, in every spare moment I could, to reach the end I now look forward to the film version. Glad I heard this version first, because the beauty of the prose may become lost in a film version which relies on visual and dialogue..Happy to recommend as a thoughtful, entertaining short novel.

The narration was ideal, capturing the characters, the atmosphere of the village and enhancing the descriptions of the bleak Norfolk landscape..

Such a great listen...

Hated the ending. The characters deserved better....but what a story. Everyone, everywhere, will recognize these characters....walking through their own lives. SLKW

A treasure of a novel

What a joyous experience. Each page is alive with wise observation, fresh wit, and a disarmingly matter-of-fact sense of sadness. It's a quiet stunner, exquisitely narrated by Eve Karpf. Five stars all the way.

Such Potential!

However...... sad, abrupt ending! A little disappointed that there was no resolution for any of the characters!

Sad, unsatisfying ending.

An old fashioned, odd story. Intersecting characters, but a bit boring. Such a sad, unsatisfying ending.